JjTZT . ~ __-— -'L THE NOK.DENFELT GUN IN ACTION : A SKETCH OH THE DETACHED SQUADRON. We give an illustration of the Nordenfelt gun in actual service. This gun, it is probably known to the reader, is : formed by the combination of several barrels ranged in a ; row, throwing bullets of about a pound weight, and capable of being fired with extreme celerity. Theloadingis mechanical, being effected from the hopper above the gun, into which the cartridges are placed, and the gun is capable of main taining a rapid and continuous lire, effective to a long range. The gun when employed in active service will doubtless prove to be a very formidable weapon. Our artist desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to one of the admirable scries of photographs taken by Messrs. Foster and Martin on board H.M.S. Carysforfc. WINTER SPORTS. ^ Octr artist's page devoted to the out-door sports of this time of the year carries its explanation with it, and requires no elucidation. PRESIDENT GARFIELD. The news of the attempted assassination of President Garfield was received in Melbourne, as in every English speaking community, with deep regret, and, as will bo seen from a paragraph in another column, it cast a shade over the Melbourne colebrations of tho Fourth of July. We append the following notice, quoted from an English paper, of Presi dent Garii eld's career prior to hi selection to the great office he so creditably fills : — 'Tho early career of President Garfield resembles that President Lincoln, and it is an additional coin

I cidence that, he bears the name of Abraham. His parents, who camefromMassachusetts, settled on asmallfarminCuyahogan County, Ohio, at a place named Orange, where their son, James* Abraham, was born, November 19, 1831. As a lad, he worked on the farm, and then became a mule-driver on the tow-path, of the Ohio Canal, where he soon rose to the post of steersman. Prom a child he showed great eagerness for the acquisition of learning, and, being compelled to return home by a temporary attack of illness, his abilities were recognised by a schoolmaster, who persuaded him to begin a regular course of education. This was only accom plished by great labour and self-denial ; at one jjime he worked as a carpenter, at another he insxired his life, and borrowed money on the policy to defray his expenses. His reward -was that, about 1856, he returned to the college where he had been educated as professor of Greek and Latin, and shortly afterwards he became its president. Such changes are more possible in America than here. Fancy a bargee, who had been wont to go up and down the Isis at Oxford, becoming in a few years president of Magdalen College ! The rich endowments of Oxford probably hinder rather than facilitate such a transformation. To return to President Garfield. In 1859 he was elected to the Senate of the Ohio State Legislature, and two years later, when the terrible war began, he, like thousands of others among his countrymen who had hitherto practised the arts of peace, became a soldier. He distinguished himself especially at the battle of Chickamauga, after which he was made a major-general, but in 1863 he resigned his commission, as he had been elected to Congress. In the Legislature he soon took a prominent position, and since Mr. Blaine's elevation to the Upper Chamber he has been the Republican, leader in the House of Representatives. It will be seen that General Garfield, though he has seen a 1 good deal of real service, is not like General Hancock, who was educated at West Point, a professional soldier. In 1857' General Garfield married Miss Lucre tia Rudolph, by whom he has had seven children, five of whom survive. Mrs. Garfield was a fellow student with her husband in his early struggles to obtain instruction, and is endowed with great intellectual power and strength of character.' MR. H. BYRON MOORB, THE NEW SECRETARY OP THE V.R.C. In' giving a portrait of tho newly- appointed and popular, secretary of the Victoria Racing Club, we subjoin the following particulars of his career in this colony. Mr. Moore came to this colony with his family in 1852, in the barque Aberfoyle, to Geelong, and was appointed by Mr. Latrobe field clerk and draughtsman in the Survey office, Geelong, in November, 1852. Owing to heavy work in 1862 — tvtr. Skene, the then district surveyor, having been called to head-quarters to assist in the introduction of the Duffy Land Act of that year — Mr. Moore was compelled to take a year's leave, in the course of which he visited Europe. Some services he was able to render to Mr. John Arrowsmith, the geographer, led that gentleman to propose, and Admiral Collinson to second, Mr. Moore's election as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, which distinction he accordingly received. In Januaro, 1870, he was appointed

assistant surveyor-general, and in that post he initiated many useful reforms in the Lands department, and put into good working order a department that had pi'eviously been a source of great trouble, and, indeed, almost a public scandal. These services of Mr. Moore's to the state were recognised by his summary dismissal on Black Wednesday, January, 1878. Subsequently, Mr. Moore proposed and designed the Melbourne Exchange. The proposal was approved by Mr. R. J. Jeffiray, of Messrs. W. Sloane and Co., who undertook the work and provided the funds for the building, which was constructed at an expense of £25,000. The Exchange was opened by the Hon. J. Service in May, 1880. Amongst Mr. Moore's public undertakings is his organisation of tho first Telephone Exchange in Australia. He is also manager of the Electric Light Com pany which has lighted up the Eastern Market for the City Corporation ; and has lately been appointed, as the result of a competition with many other candidates, secretary of the V.R.C. We may mention that Mr. Moore is the Melbourne agent for tho Governments of New South Wales, New Zealand, and Queensland. Our engraving is from a portrait by Messrs. Foster and Martin. THE NEW COFFEE TAVERN, BOURKE- STREET. It is a pleasant proof of the success which has attended the enterprise of founding coffee taverns in Melbourne that the company has lately entered on the erection of a buiHing much larger than any it possessed before. There is no doubt that these taverns exert influences in favour of the spread of temperance and conducive to social improve ment in many ways, and it is highly satisfactory to see that while they benefit the public they are also yielding a good profit to their promoters, and inducing them to give greater extent to their operations. We 'give the following description of the tavern now being erected in Bourke^ street east : — This building, situated opposite tho Academy of Music, has a frontage of 52ft. by a depth of 194ft. The front is divided off into two handsome shops, the entrance to the tavern being in the centre. The vestibule leads straight through into the public dining-hall, which is to be one of the most magnificent in Melbourne. It will have abundance of light and ventilation from the side and from a large ornamental lantern-light in the centro of ceiling, an open area being formed above for light and ventilation to the bedrooms, &c, on the eastern side. Behind the dining-hall is situated a large serving-chamber, communica ting with kitchen ; a lift is formed in this chamber for the conveyance of meals to the family dining-hall on first floor. Adjoining the serving- room is a side bar, having the entrance from right-of-way. A passage from this leads to a large billiard saloon, in which are to be placed three tables. The principal stairs lead from off the front vestibule, and carry up to four stories. Tho back portion of the building is carried up four stories, and has a separato stair. Throughout tho wholo area of building is formed a basement, divided off into stores, oyster-saloon, steam kitchen, pastrycook's kitchen, dairies, &c, having three entrances from right-of-way. There are, besides, various FiittingroomH, chess and club rooms, superior billiard saloons, meeting rooms, &c. ; 120 bedrooms, all being well lighted and ventilated, and having direct communication with corridors. Tho contractor, Mr. Nathaniel Kingston,

has already commenced active operaliions^1^^ calculated that tho building will be complete 1 ? ^ ^ seven months. The whole is being carried out T aiD0Ut designs and under the supervision of Mr \v ^e architect, Collins- street west. ' m* Pitt, A SKETCH AT THE LADIES' GYMNASIUM. Our artist has here given a sketch representing in the use of the Indian clubs at the Ladies' Gymnasium of Miss Elphinstone Dick and Miss A. C. Moon, Collins-street west. Miss Dick, by her services as a teacher of swimming and of gymnastics, has done much to inculcate a taste for healthful physical exercise among the young ladies of Melbourne, and it is well to know that her exertions in this way are not wanting in public recognition. Misses Dick and Moon have, we understand, about 190 pupils under their tuition besides those they discipline at private schools. In view of the importance of this subiect, a few remarks on physical exercises for women will perhaps not be deemed out of place. The gymnastic exercises considered so necessary for men are equally so for the other sex, although many of them need considerable modification before they are suitable for women. It is not desirable to aim at making athletes of our girls, but it is more than desirable that they should grow up healthful and capable, possessing in a sufficient degree tho muscular power which alone imparts grace to movement, and that lightens domestic duties and all the business of daily life. We have no sympathy with those people who consider feebleness a female charm. Many ladies affect to consider disgusting and indelicate an acquaintance with the structure and requirements of their own bodies. This voluntary ignorance of what most nearly concerns them leads them to daily infringe the most simple laws of health, and has resulted in so many women being weak and ailing that we have lost sight of the fact that such a state of things is not natural or inevitable. The ignorance of such women is also their misfortune, because Nature does not admit ignorance to be an exemption, but visits every infringement of her laws, sooner or later, with a penalty proportioned to the offence. Neglect of education in this direction amounts to a national injury, since the race depends largely for its stamina on the mothers. Girls are now emulating their brothers in intellectual attainments but this will soon reach tho inevitable breaking-down point unless they, like their brothers, make their bodies robust in proportion. Tho severer the mental strain, so much the stronger must the body be to bear it ; and mens sana in corpore sano applies to both sexes. Physical exercise is indispensable to symmetrical development and the main tenance of vital energy. The women of ancient Greece and Rome, who served as models for those statues whose unsur passed beauty excites our admiration, were trained from childhood with their brothers, only less severely. What a contrast between the Venus of Milo and our typical woman of the period ! Instead of the noble contour, with its soft lines full of power and grace, we see 'a figure,' a cramped and distorted form, having angles in place of flowing outlines, its respiration and circulation impeded by the cuirass-like corset, the natural arches and balance of the body destroyed, and its gait crippled by high heels. In many cases the corset is adopted by young girls with the mistaken idea of "forming the figure ;" in others, because absence of physical training has rendered an erect bearing impossible without an artiticial support. Fancy the Venus unable to "sit up" without stiff stays ! It is, unfortunately, not the custom for girls to indulge in healthy outdoor games (except lawn tennis); if it were so, their clothes would soon be improved. At present, the only means girls have of obtaining systematic bodily training is by attending a gym nasium ; and it is significant of tho irrationalism of female attire that they cannot do so in their conventional dress, but must exchange it for one that does not obstruct the use of the limbs. Physical training should go hand in hand with education ; it should be rational, progressive, and suited to individual requirements. The signal success of the Ladies' Gymnasium conducted by Miss Elphinstone Dick and Miss A. C. Moon is an evidence that public opinion is moving onwards, while it encourages us to hope that in the future Victoria's daughters, as well as her sons, will have reason to be proud of their physique. SXCETCHES AT THE MAYOK's BALL. The ball given by his Worship the Mayor of Melbourne in honour of the visit of the Royal Princes is fully described in another column. The graphic illustrations of the pic turesque and humorous aspects of the brilliant gathering given by our artist sufficiently speak for themselves. THE TOWN OF HAMILTON. In giving an illustration of the town of Hamilton we quote from Messrs. Gordon and Gotch's Australian Handbook for 1881 the following description of the town :— "Hamil- ton, the metropolis of the Western District, is situated on the Grange Burn Creek, in the counties of Dundas and Normanby, 223¾ miles west of Melbourne, in lat. S. 37 deg. 45min., long. E. 142 deg. lmin., 576ft. above sea level. The river Wannon flows about 12 miles distant west. The municipal area is 5,280 acres, with 638 dwellings, and rateable property valued at £268,800 ; annual value (1880), £20,467; gross revenue, £4, 637. It contains a fine hospital and benevolent asylum, a shire office, a mechanics' institute, with a library of 1,800 volumes, town-hall, and the usual Government buildings. The Hamilton and Western District College, founded 1871, is an institution largely patronised, and the building is one of the finest in the district. The Academy is now amalgamated with it. There are besides the Alexandra College for Ladies, and a state school (No. 295), capable of accommodating 500 children ; average attendance in 1879, 373. A large new building on the site of the old post-office, accommodating the Treasury, Land Office, and Post and Telegraph offices, is now opened. A handsome private club-house, erected by the members at a cost of £5,000, was opened in 1879. The Hamilton Gas Company has been very successful, and in its second year's operations has been able to declare a 10 per cent. dividend. The water supply works have been completed at a cost of £12,000. Hamilton has nine churches— Epis- copalian, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Baptist, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic (St. Mary's), Evangelical, Gaelic, and German Lutheran. The National, Colonial, and Australasian banks, and Bank of Victoria have branches

in the town, and occupy substantial premises. The Ballarat Banking Company and the Land Mortgage Bank have also agencies here, and there is a savings bank. The Pastoral and Agricultural Society hold exhibitions of stock and produce twice a year ; and the Western Racing Club, having a fine course of 120 acres (oval left-handed), furnishes two meetings (flat and steeplechase) a year, with occasional programmes of bye-races. The Western District Coursing Club has its head-quarters here. The Lodge of Freemasons (No. 1,020, E.C.) have erected a convenient masonic-hall, while the friendly societies are represented by the Foresters, Oddfellows, Sons of Temperance, and Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society. There are nine hotels, of which the Victoria, the Commercial, Hamilton Inn, Temperance, and the Criterion, are the principal ; besides numerous first-class stores and business establishments. The Victoria, National, Northern Alliance, Imperial, Mutual Provident, National Mutual, Mutual Assurance, London and Lan- cashire, National, Norwich Union, North British, and other companies are represented by agencies. Population of the borough, 3,500; including the suburbs, the town may be said to contain about 6,000 people. The district is a pastoral (principally sheep- grazing) and agricultural one ; 603 acres are under tillage. The Hamilton Spectator, the leading journal of the west, is published three times a week. Courts of petty sessions are held twice a week, and Court of Assize twice a year. Hamilton is the coaching centre for the whole of the Western District. It is now connected with Mel- bourne by railway via Ararat ; also with Portland. To this we may add that our view is taken looking south east. To the left is Thompson-street, one of the principal thoroughfares of the town. Gray-street, the chief business street, intersects at right angles. To the extreme left is the old land office, a place of great notoriety in the days of the land rush to the Avest and of the ' rand-rackets' under our early agrarian legislation. The building, the scene of ao many exciting competitions, is now used as a store. In the middle of tlie engraAdng is the state school, and just above is Mount Napier, the altitude of which is 1,440ft. above Bea level. To the right is the new Church of England, with its tower and spire. The Presbyterian Church is close beside it, and the Wesleyan Church to the extreme right. The back of the Treasury, Post and Telegraph office is to the left of the state school. The large building at the near end of Thompson- street is the Commercial Hotel, which was occupied by the Royal Princes on their recent stay in the town. The building in the foreground on the left is the Dundas Shire-hall. Two small churches, seen on the extreme left, are the Free Church of Scotland and the Primitive Methodist. VIADUCT AND TUNNEL, NAIRNE RAILAVAY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Our illustration of these works on the Nairne railway is taken from a photograph by Captain Sweet. From the South Australian Iiec/ister we take the folloAving descrip tion : — No. 2 Tunnel is 390 yards long. It is seven and a half miles from Adelaide, and is the largest on the line, although some of the smaller ones are no infants. The men are fast removing the spoil, and appear to be rapidly getting on with the Avork. At the south end of the tunnel is the famous American iron viaduct, which looks very light, but is, by all accounts, a marvel of strength and safety. The 1 Avork of erection is noAV practically completed. The viaduct is about lift. Gin. wide and 360ft. long, Avith 12 spans of 30ft. Its height at the highest point is 110ft., and the iron posts supporting it are embedded in concrete piers solidly made, additional firmness being given by means of anchor bolts cemented in. There is another viaduct of similar construction beyond this, 86ft. high at the highest part ; and the intervening space, which is not very great, is being filled up Avith earthworks. Although the passage-way of the viaduct is only lift. 6in., the iron posts spread out to 35ft., to give greater stability. The floor of the viaducts is made of buckle plates bolted firmly in. The buckle plates are not elegant, as they look uneven from their shape, but they are additionally strong. Buckle plates rise in the middle, on the principle of the arch. At each end the A'iaducts rest upon friction plates on abutment. The two viaducts and the intermediate earthworks form the segment of a circle, the radius of Avhich is ten and a half chains. Passengers in going over theso chasms for the first time may be excused if they hold their breath and feel a little anxious, but no doubt in time the sense of danger will Avear off. The viaducts are guaranteed to bear the strain of a load of 70 tons passing over them at the rate of 30 miles an hour, but a much severer test has to bo applied to them to prove their quality and safety. Where the raihvay takes a curve round the brow of the hill near this spot the view is simply glorious, the city of Adelaide and cultivated plains lying mapped out beneath the eye Avith Avondorful distinct ness, Avhile the broad belt of ocean seen to the Avestward completes one of the finest sconic effects in the neighbour hood of the city. The hills in the vicinity, though dry with the heat of summer, have, still the beauty of the season ; and the trees, if not large or of noble proportions, aro rich in foliage, and feed the eye with cooling green. A NEAV ZEALAND MIDAVINTEU SCENE. The striking view of Now Zealand scenery in midwinter, Avhich wo reproduce from an admirable photograph by Messrs. Hart, Campbell, and Co., is taken on the Macotown track, Otago. The lofty BnoAvy range in tho distance is that of the Remarkablos.